Overview
- Klobuchar won the governorship Tuesday by about 55.5% to 42.6% over Republican Lisa Demuth, making her the first woman elected governor of Minnesota.
- She named a 14-person transition team led by Cindy Jesson and launched a transition website with $162,000 in state transition funds to staff the incoming administration.
- Klobuchar pledged a top-to-bottom audit of state agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse and said she will push policies to lower health and prescription costs, build 100,000 homes with the private sector, expand apprenticeships and pursue gun-safety legislation.
- Klobuchar said she will appoint an interim replacement to her U.S. Senate seat, and the Minnesota Secretary of State confirmed that state law schedules the resulting special election for November 2027.
- Legal commentators note there is not an unambiguous legal bar to brief dual officeholding, but political practice and past precedent point toward Klobuchar resigning before taking office, a decision that will affect who runs, turnout and the balance of power in next year’s odd-year race.